Harry’s friends kidnap him to save him from his relatives and Snape is one of the Order members looking for them, finally finding them in their refuge…

After Sirius’s death and the end of the fifth year, Harry is sent back to the Dursleys'. First they leave him alone because of the Order’s threats, but later when Dudley beats Harry severely and there is no retribution, they decide to show Harry precisely how much they "appreciate" the Dementor incident. They monitor all the letters Harry sends to his friends and the Order doesn’t bother to check on the situation personally. Harry is slowly reaching the end of his powers and finally after some hesitation, put a secret plead for help into his letter. Ron and the twins go to their parents and the rest of the Order and press on them to act, however the only result is that Molly sends Harry some food, which is immediately confiscated by the Dursleys'. After that, Vernon beats Harry even worse than before. When Ron recognizes three drops of blood in the corner of Harry’s next letter that Vernon and Harry had overlooked, he decides to act on his own as the adults clearly won’t help. Therefore, one night Ron, Hermione, possibly the twins, and some others (like Ginny, Neville or Luna) sneak into Privet Drive, take a badly battered Harry into a Muggle car and escape a Muggle way, never intercepted by the Order. The next morning the parents discover that the teens are gone, and Harry as well.

Two days later, when Snape finally finds the mistrusting children hiding in a small cottage far away from Surrey, all desperately trying (and failing) to treat his many injuries and discussing the possibility of contacting the Order or bringing Harry to a Muggle hospital, he has to use all his powers to save Harry’s life. Of course, the day when Harry’s high fever finally seems to lower a bit and he begins to heal, a big article appears in the Prophet that the wards around Privet Drive have fallen and the Dursleys have been killed. The article also points out that Harry and his friends have mysteriously disappeared about the same time. The previous events on the Ministry, when twisted a bit, also don’t help Harry’s case. So now Severus Snape must somehow coexist with the children who forced him to swore an oath not to reveal them to anybody until Harry heals completely because they no longer trust their elders, heal the boy he hates (or hated), start to think of the way to clear Harry and possibly his friend from the accusations of the Dursleys’ murder and keep both Dumbledore and Voldemort far away from him for a time long enough.